The quest to find the equation of a catenary makes an ideal investigation for upper secondary students. In the modelling exercise that follows, no knowledge of calculus is required to gain a fairly good understanding of the nature of the curve. This investigation is best described as a scientific investigation--a "hands on" experience…

The present investigation examined 8- to 16-year-olds' tendency to lie, the sophistication of their lies, and related cognitive factors. Participants were left alone and asked not to look at the answers to a test, but the majority peeked. The researcher then asked a series of questions to examine whether the participants would lie about their…

Despite curriculum imperatives, in South Africa and worldwide, for learners to have more autonomy in investigations, they remain largely teacher controlled with learners having only limited opportunities in planning. This design-based study explored how a cartoon can be employed in a Grade 9 Natural Sciences class in prompting learners to plan…

Immigrant-origin adolescents represent the fastest growing segment of youth population in the United States, and in many urban schools they represent the majority of students. In this 3-wave longitudinal study, we explored trajectories of internalizing mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms). The participants included…

This study was an exploratory qualitative investigation into the role of spirituality in adolescent resilience. Using grounded theory techniques, data were gathered from one-on-one in-depth interviews with 15 adolescents about the role of spirituality in their lives. The focal areas examined were: adolescents' understanding of spirituality and…

This study investigated three questions: (1) What are Lebanese secondary school (Grade 9-12) biology teachers' and university biology professors' positions regarding biological evolution?, (2) How do participants' religious affiliations relate to their positions about evolutionary science?, and (3) What are participants' positions regarding…

The aim of this study is to evaluate the reasoning skills in geometry-related subjects of six 8th Grade students. The study data were obtained at the end of the 2011-2012 spring period in a public elementary school. The study uses a case study with qualitative research techniques to investigate how students use reasoning skills. In this study, six…

Recent years have seen the convergence of two major policy streams in U.S. K-12 education: standards/accountability and teacher quality reforms. Work in these areas has led to the creation of multiple measures of teacher quality, including measures of their instructional alignment to standards/assessments, observational and student survey measures…

This investigation uses an ethnographic case study approach to explore the benefits and challenges of including a variety of goals within a high school Environmental Science curriculum. The study focuses on environmental education (EE) goals established by the Belgrade Charter (1975), including developing students' environmental awareness and…

Science process skills are claimed to enable an individual to improve their own life visions and give a scientific view/literacy as a standard of their understanding about the nature of science. The main purpose of this study was to develop a test for measuring a valid, reliable and practical test for Science Process Skills (SPS) in secondary…

An analysis of the improvement in attainments of 109 students attending specialist-resourced provision for specific learning difficulties (SpLD) attached to mainstream secondary schools was conducted as they progressed through Key Stages 3 and 4. Steady progress was made in terms of reading accuracy, reading comprehension, spelling ability and…

Density has been reported as one of the most difficult concepts for secondary school students (e.g. Smith et al. 1997). Discussion about the difficulties of learning this concept has been largely focused on the complexity of the concept itself or student misconceptions. Few, if any, have investigated how the concept of density was constituted in…

This study investigates the similarities and differences of mathematics-related teaching competencies between the future secondary school teachers of Taiwan and Singapore by using data from the international Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M), organized by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational…

Educational measurement is generally thought of as empirical, quantitative, and large-scale, whose purpose is to monitor educational systems. Sociocognitive studies, on the other hand, are associated with small-scale, theoretical, and qualitative studies, the purpose of which is to conduct fine-grained analysis of learning or teaching, or to…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), through its Connections Standard, highlights the importance of "the opportunity for students to experience mathematics in a context." Seeing how mathematics can be used to describe real-world phenomena can motivate students to learn more mathematics. Connecting mathematics to the real world…